Search for savings keeps shoppers focused on Black Fridays

Lines of shoppers snaked around Volusia Mall shortly before it opened at midnight on Thursday, but crowds were relatively light in Palm Coast and Southeast Volusia.

FATIMA HUSSEIN AND JEFFREY CASSADY STAFF WRITERS

Lines of shoppers snaked around Volusia Mall shortly before it opened at midnight on Thursday, and outside the mall's food court entrance, the queue stretched from the doors to the far side of the Applebee's. Shree Rao was one of about a hundred people waiting outside the mall's entrance near Sears about an hour before the shopping center opened. She said she was hoping to get a few discounted items for her home. Rao said she's no stranger to pre-sale lines. “Sadly, I've done this before,” she said. Yet, the allure of saving big on necessities for the house — and the occasional discounted gift for her sister — keeps her coming back to Black Friday events. However, Rao has her limits. She said she doesn't think she'll be waiting in line next year if the mall and other stores open even earlier on Thanksgiving. “I think Thanksgiving should be more family-oriented,” she said. “I like my Thanksgiving the way it is.” Amelia Broxton of Daytona Beach was already in shopping mode as she waited outside Volusia Mall. She had been to Kmart earlier in the day and was ready to see what kind of deals on clothing she could get at the mall retailers. “I wanted to come because I've been before,” Broxton said of why she went to the midnight mall opening. “And, I wanted to get those sales.” Inside the mall, Daytona Beach resident Marshall Tucker waited in a line in Sears' electronics department for a door-buster sale on televisions to begin. It was 10:45 p.m., and Tucker still had more than five hours until the 4 a.m. sale began. He'd been waiting since 6 p.m. “It's worth it,” Marshall said. He had his eye on a deeply discounted high-definition television. He had hoped to pick up a model that was on sale when Sears opened at 8 p.m., but he arrived too late to secure one. So, he queued up for a television that was to go on sale at 4 a.m. Farther back in line, a frustrated Terry Laughlin tried to get the attention of a Sears employee. The Daytona Beach resident arrived at Sears at 8 p.m. hoping to snag the same model television Marshall was after. She said was upset because she couldn't get a straight answer on how many televisions were available. “I don't want to wait until 3 (a.m.) just to learn there isn't one left,” Laughlin said. “It's not like there are 100 of us here." Many of the other approximately 15 people in line shared Laughlin's sentiment. Outside of the Best Buy on West International Speedway Boulevard at 5:30 a.m., local residents told stories of success and defeat in the face of Black Friday. Donna Rice, a Palm Coast resident, said she had been out shopping since midnight. “It was long and tiring,” she said. Rice said she started her trek midnight at Walmart, then made her way to Kohl's before a last-ditch effort at finding sale items at Best Buy. Rice said the time and effort of shopping was worth it, “I got some good deals and I got all my Christmas shopping done.” Others left the store empty-handed, like Maigan Graham, who said she could not find the sales she was hoping for. “I'm looking for a MacBook laptop,” Graham said. “But I'm not really finding those on sale.” One mother-daughter pair used Black Friday as an early-morning bonding experience. Helene Dusselaar, a New Smyrna Beach resident and native of the Netherlands, said she arrived at Best Buy at 5 a.m. and didn't think the lines were unbearable, especially because many stores had midnight openings. Best Buy opened at midnight. When asked what stores the pair traveled to, Dusselaar's daughter smiled and responded, "We went everywhere!” Amy and Paul Woodard, a Port Orange couple expecting their second child, left Best Buy with a 40-inch LCD television. A pregnant Mrs. Woodard said the couple's Black Friday plans began as a trip to find a crib for the baby, but ended in a purchase of the television. She said the couple started their trip at Babies“R”Us, and came to Best Buy to see what they could find. “This is my first Black Friday,” she said. “I don't know if I'll be doing this again.” Crowds were light at many Palm Coast stores Friday morning and some customers said they had been out since Thursday night and were already wrapping up their shopping. Shoppers trickled into Target in Palm Coast during the early morning hours, but employees said crowds were heavy the night before. About 5:30 a.m. Friday, Lillian DeCamillo of Palm Coast passed through the check-out line with her daughter Dawn West of Orlando and niece Katrina Klaus and nephew Charlie Klaus of New York. The group started shopping at 11:30 Thursday night. "After dinner we go through the flyers and see where the best deals are and plan the best strategy of where we're going to go first," DeCamillo said. They planned to visit Books-A-Million and Michaels and end their shopping trip with a stop at PetSmart, which opened at 7 a.m. Katrina Klaus said she snatched up a $125 cashmere sweater for $35 at Kohl's and a $100 pair of boots for $39 at Bealls. She estimated she'd saved about $200 by starting her shopping early. Across town at Walmart, Susan Paulsen of Palm Coast browsed in the electronics department with her 15-year-old daughter Lauren. Paulsen was pleased to find two 32-inch TVs on sale for $198, but also had one disappointment. "I wanted to get a laptop but the kind I wanted was already sold out," she said.Paulsen, who started her shopping about 5 a.m. Friday morning, said she wasn't expecting the "mellow" atmosphere she found at Walmart."I was so surprised when we got here--there was no line out front," she said.Crowds were also light down the street at Kohl's. Laura Rausch of Palm Coast pushed her cart through the girls' section. She shopped for clothing and toys for her daughters, who will turn 8 and 10 next month, and said she'd likely pick up a few gifts for her husband. "I have no desire to stand in a line," Rausch said. "It just seems silly to come at midnight when I can get the same deals at 6 a.m."A seasoned Black Friday shopper, Rausch arrived at Kohl's at 5:45 a.m. and said she planned to get "more than half" of her holiday shopping done Friday."There's always last-minute 'I want' and 'I'd really like' things but the big stuff will be taken care of," she said. Many early-morning shoppers said they liked Friday's laid-back shopping experience, but Cori Vincent said she missed the crowds as she walked through the junior's department at the Kohl's with her mother Barb Curcio and Curcio's sister-in-law Mary Ann Curcio. "I think it's just exciting," Vincent said about the busy holiday shopping days.Vincent, a Palm Coast resident, has shopped on Black Friday for more than a decade, and lamented there wasn't any Christmas music playing over the speakers. After leaving Kohl's, Vincent said the group planned to eat leftover turkey sandwiches and watch her 13-year-old daughter put up the Christmas tree. Outside the New Smyrna Beach Walmart on State Road 44, at 6 a.m. there were only a smattering of cars in the parking lot as dawn's light brightened the horizon, but still bargain hunters seemed pleased with their purchases. “I saved about $100,” said Heather Smith-Knuth as she loaded an air hockey table into her car. While the lack of “hustle and bustle” disappointed the 45-year-old New Smyrna Beach resident, she said she found everything she had been looking for. “This is a tradition,” Smith-Knuth said of the early morning, day after Thanksgiving, shopping time. Store personnel declined to comment on Black Friday activities, which began at midnight. They referred questions to corporate officials. Heather Zucker, of Edgewater said her morning started about 5 a.m. up the road at Big Lots. “I wanted to get a little shopping in before I go to work,” she said walking toward her car in the Walmart parking lot, a new sewing machine in her cart. “I told my boss I would be in at 8:30 a.m.” Ralph Johnson said that the early morning hour didn't bother him. “I am usually up early talking with a friend from up north on AOL, but he is out shopping,” the Edgewater resident said. Like many of the people who skipped a warm bed for some pre-Christmas bargains, Johnson seemed satisfied with his purchase. “You can't buy a cartridge for what they were selling the printer for,” he said of his acquisition of a new computer printer. “I saved around $50 bucks.”At 8:20 a.m., at the Kohl's in the West Volusia Towne Centre in Orange City, the parking lot had open spaces. The store had been open since midnight, but a regular flow of shoppers were coming in and out. There were lots of clearance and sale signs on the clothes racks and counters. The jewelry counter was busy as was the linen section, and the toy section was picked over. Outside the store, three ladies had finished shopping and were loading their cars. Lissia Billingsley from Tampa was visiting Debbie Hollard for the holiday."We were out a bit last night, then went home and this is our second stop this morning. We went to Big Lots in DeLand first," Billingsley said. The pair left the house 6 a.m. "Last year we went out all night long, but it's just too hard. We have found this morning that even sleeping and getting up, we have found the same sales as the crazy midnight deals. It's been really nice," she said.Annie Martin, Mark Johnson and Bob Koslow contributed to this report.